twiztor

the Yankees need to start losing, and quick. I don't want my D-Rays out of first place.

Surely this must have happened at some point? I demand video! i don't know why you'd want to watch it, but i found this on youtube:

Ariel mentioned right away that Nick Khan was Ariel's agent for a good chunk of time. they seem to be on friendly terms, so i didn't expect a hardhitting questions or non-corporate answers. since when do crowd reactions dictate alignment in WWE's morality system?

According to cagematch and wikipedia, Luther wrestled twice for ECW (losing to Mike Awesome on 8/14/98 and losing to Tommy Rogers on 8/15/98, both on house shows) and one match for WCW (as "Mad Jack", losing to Vampiro on WCW Worldwide, 8/26/00). No WWF match listed. i don't know how to timestamp it, but the match is at about the 1:42:00 mark.

i guess the question becomes: how would a different company (AEW or anyone else) book Reigns to be a breakout star and THE GUY?

i gotta say, i'm super psyched for Rampage tonight. I can't remember the last time i spent days thinking about an upcoming wrestling card, especially a weekly TV show. Like, i couldn't wait to see Blood & Guts, but the anticipation for tonight's show is on a whole other level. And it's funny. I'm not even really a big CM Punk fan. But the excitement that surrounds this show is magical. This was alluded to by someone earlier, but the hype for Punk's return will be basically impossible for him to live up to. I remember when he debuted in WWECW, i had seen a match or two but never really followed his indy career. The hype for his debut was crazy and i was very much looking forward to seeing what this guy could do. Then he debuted in ECW and did.....not much really. Obviously that changed after a few years, but i remember being very disappointed with his early run, just because the hype was through the roof. I hope we're not seeing a similar trajectory here.

that's what i usually hear. But IMO Cole is bland, generic, and even after 20 years he's still mediocre at his job. Whether that's due to Vince (or whoever) in his ear or not, i really don't care.

re: PIP. i don't watch the show live and will exclusively look for a non-US airing. i don't miss a minute of wrestling. meh showing to me. i have no problem with Omega and his matches are awesome. the Bucks are fine with their character stuff, but their matches jumped the shark months ago (even before the heel turn, although that certainly sped matters up) and i can't stand watching them in ring now. solid Mox promo.

this is really cool and something to be immensely proud of. what is SCP?

i watched the 2012 "Extreme Reunion" show put on by Shane Douglas yesterday. maybe i just wasn't in the right mood for it, but ooof. not good. Every match went about 10 minutes too long, the crowd was horrible, the wrestlers seemed unmotivated, and of fucking course Shane put himself over in the main event. I think it's safe to say that 10 years after ECW went out of business, reunions have lost their luster. crowd is already annoying by booing the commentary guy. He does an OK job of trying to put over ECW and Joey Styles, but the crowd ain't having it. one match, Al Snow vs. CW Anderson, was hyped by the ring announcer as a "wrestling purist's dream", so of course Al Snow starts off by arguing with the Head. And Anderson locks on an armbar for the better part of 5 minutes. the crowd is shitting all over this, and i don't even blame them. way too long and not interesting. Axl and Balls had a halfhearted hardcore match. sure there was a cheesegrater, but at this point it is painfully obvious these guys are just going through the motions. then there was a "tag team match", with Angel (of da Baldies) taking on the Gangstas. Except it was never explained why Angel didn't have a partner. And they brawled around for too long. And then two guys who i don't know and didn't pay attention to their names, hit the ring, attacked New Jack and Mustafa, and then everybody left. no finish. The crowd booed the hell out of this. Pitbull Gary Wolfe was supposed to wrestle Raven, but Raven brought out a bunch of jabronis (including "Cripple H"), who Pitbull beat up instead. Sandman also came out. there was a brawl. Pitbull pinned one of the nobodies and the crowd didn't take it well. Jerry Lynn squared off with "Crowbar" Devon Storm in what was easily the best match of the night. crisp moves, good action, and the crowd was into it. kudos. then the main event happened. This is the event where Sabu was found unresponsive in his hotel room, so obviously he's not wrestling. Shane is in the ring making the announcement/cutting a promo, but the crowd has fucking had it with this event. They are completely uninterested in anything Shane has to say (chants of "Refund" and "Fuck You Shane"). Out comes 2 Cold Scorpio, and the angle is "what if Scorpio had beaten Douglas back in '94 for the NWA World Title". they have a decent little match. Nothing great, but the crowd hates on the first half. We get two ref bumps, false finishes on either side (by now the crowd is into it and totally behind Scorp), and TWO! masked man interferences (one is Kevin Sullivan, the other is Tod Gordon). Then Shane wins with a belly-to-belly and the crowd is pissed. just a completely tone deaf show. i'm going to give Extreme Rising #2 a shot next week, but it better be a marked improvement or i'm cutting out.

Amazing Spider-Man #250-300 (+Spectacular Spider-Man #90-137) (+Web of Spider-Man #1-39) this set begins my read of Web of Spider-Man, which takes up after Marvel Team-Up was cancelled. I wasn't reading team-up (it seemed like it didn't play into the larger narrative enough and felt like a bunch of standalone stories. that said, i did read a handful where it tied in with what was happening or when a fairly prominent character debuted, like the Beetle). Web is definitely the lesser of the three titles. there's still a fair amount of fill-in stories- i've noticed that Web has the hardest time keeping Spidey's costumes straight. But it's still been decent. It's not as divorced from the main titles as, say, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight or even Shadow of the Bat. OK, major takeaways. I'm going to have to work backwards here, as there's a TON of things to cover. First, ASM #300. The full debut of Venom, after two last page teases. I gotta say, i expected more. He's introduced, wreaks havoc, his backstory is explained, and he's taken out, all in one issue. A double sized issue, but still just a single issue. After a multiple years long arc with the Hobgoblin, maybe the writers were just trying to keep things moving, but it all wrapped up too quick and clean for me. They're certainly getting a lot of use out of Spider-Woman II's costume. I hope her creators get their due. Macfarlane on art really brought a lot to the title, ESPECIALLY the covers. I see a lot of similarities between his and Greg Capullo's art that i never connected before (yes, i know Capullo was on Spawn for a good long time. i don't know why i didn't see it either). The Marriage. so, Pete and MJ had been playing this flirty game of will-they-won't-they get back together for awhile now, but finally Pete gets his mind set, proposes to Mary Jane, and BAM! they get married in the next month's Annual. what? i know they have a history, i know they had been building the relationship for a while, and i know they'd each expressed their feelings (not so much to each other, but to the readers), but the whole thing just happened in a flash. I'm disappointed that the subsequent issues i read didn't include fan mail, because i'm really curious of the reaction to how quick this all happened. i would certainly expect some fan backlash (what a difference 20 years makes, eh?) The wedding issue itself was well done and i enjoyed it. They've really built up MJ's character the last couple years, from a one-note party girl to who she is now. Kraven's Last Hunt. i really liked the premise of this, and the story beats, and the idea. But the actual storytelling was a bit off-putting. I don't know if it was mainly how they'd present the sequence of panels to show what was happening with each of the characters or what, but the way they presented the story just didn't click for me. Once Pete was out of the grave, I felt it got better, since we had a full time narrator. That being said, it's been the story i reflect back on the most, and it makes you think. Definitely stands out in a variety of ways. I can surely see why it holds such a special place to fans. Gang War. The Kingpin's out of town mysteriously, so all the underbosses and rival gang leaders decide to shoot their wad and lay claim on NYC. This features Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Punisher shows up for a single issue and then vanishes. I really enjoyed this, but felt like i wasn't getting the whole story. I didn't see any non-Spidey stories listed on the Reading Order i'm following, but it certainly feels like there's chunks of the story missing. I haven't double checked the timeline, but i have to assume this matches up with Daredevil's "Born Again" arc by Frank Miller. Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin has been the best villain in this book in ages, and there's lots going on with him in this read. I think we picked up right after his first arc, and he only gets more violent and crazy since then. He teams up with the Rose and is a sometime ally of Kingpin. Flash Thompson is framed and arrested for being Hobby, but we find out posthumously that it was Ned Leeds, coworker of Pete. funny how that works out. I did like how the former Jack O'Lantern straight up stole the Hobgoblin identity. I'll be honest, i remembered Roderick Kingsley being the Hobgoblin, so the reveal caught me off guard. A rare instance where you know what the future holds so miss out on what's happening in the past. This must happen in the future, or maybe it's just in other media. i guess i'll find out eventually. Black Cat. Felicia goes through a bunch of changes in this batch. I'm not really a fan of where they've taken her character. She changed costumes into something downright terrible. She gained and then lost her "luck" powers, but now is gaining cat-like abilities? just seems like they don't know what to do with her. They also use her to introduce a new character in The Foreigner, which is every bit as generic as you might imagine. Finally, we're back to where we started, with Spider-Man debuting his new black suit (which, again, he copied from Spider-Woman, and even admits as much in Secret Wars), which turns out to be an alien symbiote. Handled really well, i loved Pete being weirded out by the new abilities but accepting them in short order. The way he keeps putting off seeing the F4 to investigate is wonderful. Obviously he narrowly escapes a lifelong symbiotic relationship with the suit. I'm sure that won't come back anytime in the future..... man, some really good stuff in this run. Even if some of the later stuff feels rushed, i still very much enjoyed it. Looking forward to whatever else is coming.

1. Chris Benoit at WMXX and the post-match celebration with Eddie i know, i know. but at the time it was the most magical thing possible. others: Macho Man winning the WM4 tournament (although i watched this on VHS, not live) 'nuff said. Christian beating Jeff Jarrett at Against All Odds '06 for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title felt like validation after years of midcard/tag team/comedy roles Daniel Bryan @ WMXXX the last time i even remotely gave a shit about WWE. That passed, quickly. i feel like there's a tag team win in there somewhere that floated my boat, but damn if i can remember it now.

i understand what you're saying, but i wouldn't consider the highly promoted debut episode as a baseline.

2+2=15,793? it's like you watched Scott Steiner's math promo, snorted more coke than Ultimate Warrior, and said "hold my beer..."

according to wiki, Ric considers himself a 21-time world champ. while i would prefer he stay far, far away from AEW, i love the idea of him being promoted as a 21 time champ.

do you get a discount if you're a poster at this board?

100% in on the Snyder Nightwing leaning towards yes on Robin & Batman. 3 issues + focus on the future Nightwing. if it measures up to Robin Year One or the Gauntlet, it will be great. but that's a pretty big IF. 50/50 on Robins. i like the premise but just question how it will balance. but Seeley nailed Grayson, so i am conflicted. waiting for more info on Batgirls.

i'm an all-or-nothing kind of person (maybe you can tell from my comic reading habits or from my Complete ECW watch obsession), so i'm either going to need to watch all of it or call it quits soon. I will give it a few more eps and see what develops. artwork = vocal performances = writing. for me, i need to appreciate all three, or like you mentioned, one has to be so good that it makes up for the others. that's not my experience with TSSM yet, but i'll TRY HARDER and give it another shot.

also, @The Natural, i've been trying to get into Spectacular Spider-Man. I've watched a few episodes now, and it just doesn't click for me. I don't really like the animation (giant soulless eyes especially). So far, the characterizations are boiled down to one-note versions of themselves. Everything just seems too simplistic. unless it's commonly known that the series starts off slow but gets awesome later, i think i'll stick with the '90s Spidey cartoon. Also, Harry Osbourne's voice is horrible.

great! i'm around ASM #290 now. Once i get to 300 i will do another recap post. ~50 issues (of the main title. 150+ of everything) seems like a reasonable chunk. Plus, the -50s and -00s tend to wrap up storylines and/or kick off new status quos. May have to reevaluate once i get into the 90s and we add ANOTHER title, more one shots/minis, and i'm undecided on reading the Venom series.

no complaints here! it'd be even better if Jiri gets that shot instead!

confirmed: @The Naturalhas a foot fetish.

i don't remember who said it, but a few years back someone suggested the idea of Sandman using "Mr. Sandman" by the Chordettes as his entrance theme. I can't get the image out of my head of him sticking his head through the curtain to say "Yes?" at the beginning of the song. Thank you whoever mentioned that years ago. I will still think of it at random times and chuckle to myself.

there was so much more i wanted to say, but felt like i was rambling already. Unfortunately, Mikey Whipwreck was a victim of that. His earliest jobber appearances made you fear for his health. He was just folded, flattened, and pounded time and again. I might rate him as the best squash jobber of all time. His "lucky" runs with Cactus for the tag belts was done perfectly, especially his promos, where he would talk about his mom being scared for him. pure gold. His World Title chase with the Sandman was just so excellently done. The perfect mix of squash jobber, plucky upstart, and determined challenger. He never had a chance. Except he always had a chance. His tenure with WCW was terrible. I only remember a handful of matches, but they slotted him in with the cruiserweights, a role that he was ill-suited for at the time. They didn't devote any time whatsoever to him, and he was less than an afterthought. His return to ECW was sad. He did absolutely nothing for his first year back. His pairing with James Mitchell really worked, and the team was Tajiri was where he started to shine again. Ironically enough, he was slotted into that same cruiserweight-style role that WCW saddled him with, yet he made it work.